Crytek outlines anti-cheating plans for Hunt: Showdown

Lots of cheaters have been banned, but not everything that looks like cheating actually is.

Hunt: Showdown is a competitive multiplayer shooter, and inevitably that means that some players are going to cheat. Developer Crytek dove into the matter today with an update discussing the steps it's taking to deal with rule-breakers, and also describing some elements of the game that might look like cheating, but actually aren't.

Crytek didn't get into the nitty-gritty of its anti-cheat efforts "to avoid revealing anything which cheaters and cheat program developers may take advantage of." But the short version is that Hunt's primary protection comes by way of Easy Anti-Cheat, which relies in part on user-reported cheating: "When a report is received, we forward it to EAC for further investigation, and if it is legit, you can be sure that anyone using it will be caught pretty soon after the fact," Crytek explained.

Not every report is acted upon, because not every reported incident is caused by cheating. Hunt: Showdown is an Early Access game, which is another term for "it's not finished," so bugs, much like cheating, are bound to happen. Walls sometimes won't render properly, exposing anyone behind it—functionally the same as a wallhack, but the result of a bug rather than intentional tampering. Players may appear unarmed when they kill you, or maybe you don't hear the shot—also the result of bugs (or possibly a silenced weapon). Connectivity issues can cause warping or missed shots, and objects will sometimes pop in and out of view, which can be inconvenient when you're hiding behind them.

"Anti-cheat is an ever-changing, constantly growing system, and it needs constant upkeep. Going forward, we will be looking at further ways to keep cheaters out of the game," Crytek said. "This will include looking into to more ways to detect players who prefer to circumvent the fair rules of the game, as well as looking at removing those that cheat from our leaderboard. This will be an ongoing process that we will keep you updated on in the future."

If you encounter what you believe to be a cheat, either in the game or elswhere online, you can (and should) report it at huntshowdown.kayako.com.